“We won’t move forward if we try and bury the past.”
In the Belfast Telegraph Chris Thornton interviews Nuala O’Loan as she prepares to hand over the office of the Police Ombudsman to Al Hutchinson. A couple of lines stand out in particular, the title of this post – “We won’t move forward if we try and bury the past” – being one of them, and this
“We think we’re in a relatively stable position, but as I watch the goings on up the hill, it seems to me that it’s not as stable as people might think it is. We don’t want anything which will leave the opportunity for anybody to move back into violence.”
Indeed. Something that consultative group might want to consider.. As mentioned previously – The first step, after all.. before it’s too late..
nmc – “You say the IRA was an army but you’re being disengenious, you regularly refer to them as terrorists so either the RUC is held to a higher standard than terrorists or they ARE terrorists, what’s it to be?”
I actually said: “Sinn Fein IRA says it was fighting a ‘war’. It calls SF IRA death squad members ‘soldiers’. It says it was OK to murder people because it was a ‘war’.” According to the SF IRA definition of the conflict, they shouldn’t be complaining that force was occasionally used against them.
Force had to be used by the RUC to stop terrorists murdering people. But I repeat, if widespread collusion had taken place, the Sinn Fein IRA leadership would have been wiped out given the information held on SF IRA members by the police. If there was widespread collusion, why were so many Loyalists in prison?
With reference to the greater number of people in Northern Ireland being happy to see O’Loan go you say:
nmc – “Indeed a headcount of the posts show the vast majority in her corner not yours.”
That’s normal on Slugger. Not only does the SF IRA terrorist council continue to exist, their blogging committee still exists too! Many Pan-Nationalists on Slugger don’t want a Protestant about the place.
You prefer to concentrate on a few incidents within the RUC than the good work they did protecting people like you and me. You’re obviously very grateful.
Ok, P&J it’s semantics, the info I’ve been trying to extract is DO YOU THINK THE POLICE SHOULD BE HELD TO THE SAME STANDARD AS A TERRORIST ORGANISATION? Can you answer this, please? Either you agree or you don’t, real simple, but you can dodge this by spitting out the same tired old drivel over and over again about roman this pan nationalist that death squads the other. It’s a simple question ffs.
With reference to the question as to why the SF leadership is not dead now, please refer to earlier response to same question. I’m not typing it again. Why did Loyalists end up in jail? Widespread collusion does not mean carte blanche for Loyalists to do whatever they please without redress. What it means is that they helped loylists to kill. This has been proven so the word games can go on forever, it’s a point of fact. Deal with it.
As to the final point you make, don’t let the facts detract from your mopery. Look at page one of this thread I just did. Unionist posters galore, I know this because I read their posts regularly.
You prefer to concentrate on a few incidents within the RUC than the good work they did protecting people like you and me.
Again, all I say is that I have the right to hold the police force of this country to a higher standard than the terrorists. A right you seem to not want.
p&j
In providing an impartial service it is unlikely that a resolution is reached every single time that will please everybody every time.It is about doing your job without fear or favour.I am not sure about the name peace and justice-do you really want peace, you cannot unilaterally declare peace and expect everyone to share your analysis,likewise to have justice words like;- evidence ,due process,honesty,impartiality,integrity,objectivity all spring to mind -sounds more like Nuala O’Loan to me.
-Comrade Stalin _
“However, on the minority of occasions when they failed to act properly, they fell down hard.*** The core problem here was that there was no independent oversight. ***”
If, as you allude, it was a minority, why did the RUC need independent oversight? Why were the majority not to be trusted?
-Comrade Stalin-
emmm, apologies. Ignore my post, I should have read to the end of yours before I piped up. I’ll get me coat …
nmc – “Do you think the police should be held to the same standard as a terrorist organisation?”
We expect the police to have high standards – and the RUC met this standard in exceptional circumstances except on a few well publicised occasions.
We expect Sinn Fein IRA terrorists to have low standards – and SF IRA met these low standards with murder, torture, bank robberies, fuel laundering and general criminality.
blah blah blah…..
anyone looking for a view into the murky world of the RUC would do well to watch the movie ‘Hidden Agenda’ Or read sean mcphilemy’s book The Committee”, while not entirely accurate, it at least gives the reader a flavour of the activities of the colonial-crown force against irish people in the occupied counties. for those who try to claim such activity never took place or was the work of a few bad apples are hindering the truth coming to light nad as such colluding themselves (in a manner of speaking). one only has to remeber that the uda wasn’t proscribed until 91/92. that in itself reflects the fact that unionist politicians and the british are very hypocritical in their condemnation of republicans while willing to break bread with colonist militia death squads, who were more brutal and sectarian than any republican group could ever dream of. some may try and spout past tragidies like la mon etc, but the simple fact remains, republicans never had romper rooms in bars, nor did they mutilate people soley because they were the wrong religion. collusion allowed the tactic of ‘any taig will do’ to flourish, as evidenced by the fact that over 80% of loyalist victims had no ties to any republican grouping politics or otherwise. as compared to republican victims who did not have ties to unionist/loyalist organistions numbering just over 30%. so please explain to me all of you who believe loyalists and the ruc were fighting republicans, how these figures can be?